Yesterday we were proud to welcome the film crew from Sinovision, the leading Chinese media network in the US, for an interview with Wei Xiong and Michael Lam, two of the artists currently featured in Agora Gallery’s exhibition The Substance of Abstraction. They also spoke for a while with our Gallery Director, Angela Di Bello, for a unique perspective on international artists in America. The interview will be featured in a segment in the television program Sinovision Journal, which deals with the unique challenges and perspectives of Chinese-Americans in all walks of life.

Gallery Director, Angela Di Bello, being interviewed by Michael Lam’s large-scale watercolors.

Michael Lam’s works, which combine a contemporary reinterpretation of traditional Chinese calligraphy with his own “Single Stroke Painting” style, show a mastery of both learned and invented technique. Influenced by the Abstract Expressionist movement, his unique style, “Single Stroke Painting,” is based on the fact that Lam’s brushstrokes are immediate and intuitive. Once he makes a brush stroke on the painting, it can not be edited.

Wei Xiong – 1404
Oil on Canvas
39″ x 27″

Wei Xiong, born in Chengdu, China, takes an altogether different approach to her art. Inspired by Zen and other traditional Chinese philosophy, she creates layers of strokes that come together to create depth and variety across her hazy backdrops. The works are elegant and spiritual with their minimalist abstract aesthetic.

“Agora Gallery is delighted to promote and exhibit artists from China whose works are not only highly accomplished,” says Gallery Director Angela Di Bello, “but also compelling and insightful in verve and visual context.”

Both Lam and Xiong were born in China and now live and work in the United States. Showing at Agora Gallery until February 6th, The Substance of Abstraction is an exhibition that focuses on the interpretation of abstraction by artists from all over the world.